Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2427: A Long Ride

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“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Patti and I just completed a 13 day drive across the USA; from California to Rhode Island. We took the Southern route, following the border and then up through the southeast to New England. We had a great time and were in some interesting places in these interesting times we live.  And now we are where we wanted to be, safely, but oddly as exhausted as if we had flown around the world in a couple of days. I’ve long believed that any long trip, regardless of the form of transportation wears us out, just by the nature of crossing miles.  Might it have something to do with the earth spinning, gravity pulling, and us moving unnaturally faster than our bodies were built to move? Maybe, but maybe not. What I do know is that whatever long trip we take, literally or metaphorically (like long projects, stretches of time focused on something, etc.) we wear down and we need time to recharge. Ignoring that is to put ourselves in harm’s way for it is when we are tired that we make mistakes, get distracted, allow our judgement to be clouded and miss cues, signs or warnings.

Our life is a series of trips inside of a long journey. We need rest along the way if we are to finish strong and finish well.  That rest not only comes from the physical downtime we need, but also from the rest and renewal that can only come from God. When we are at our lowest point in the tank, start with a fill-up of Bible, prayer and fellowship time.  The resting of our soul in Him is what will allow us to keep the journey moving forward.

Also, thank you for your patience while I took a little break while driving.

Reference: Matthew 11:28 (New Living Translation)